The TVAD Research Group, based in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, researches relationships between text, narrative and image. We publish books, journal articles, host a double-blind peer-reviewed journal, Writing Visual Culture (previously Working Papers on Design) and host events including international conferences.

The TVAD research group is committed to fostering
research that has public benefit, and to extending its impact across academic
and non-academic constituencies through activities and outputs aimed at a range
of people. We address academic audiences with our monthly research seminar, TVAD
Talks, and our conferences and symposia, such as Texts/Cities:
From the 1970s to the Present (which has been filmed and will be made
available via YouTube/Vimeo/SoundCloud etc.), as well as through our scholarly
books and articles in highly-rated journals. However, several of our book
projects interest a much wider readership. Dr Barbara Brownie’s PhD yielded three
books, Type Image (Gingko Press, 2011), Type Object (Artpower
2014) and Transforming Type (Bloomsbury, forthcoming), all intended for a
readership of art and design practitioners. Dr Grace Lees-Maffei’s edited book Made
in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design (Bloomsbury, 2013) has
been promoted via Monocle
radio and magazine, thereby helping the book to connect with the design
cognoscenti, and we have plans for tie-ins with the Estorick Collection, London
and the Istituto Marangoni, as well as an Italian edition of the book
(currently under consideration at Mondadori). Lees-Maffei’s Iconic Designs:
50 Stories about 50 Things (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2014) is aimed at a
general as well as an undergraduate readership. We expect a different fan base
for Dr Ivan J. Phillips’ planned book on Doctor Who (under consideration at
I.B. Tauris), while Dr Mark Broughton’s new book Brideshead Revisited (BFI, 2014) has the potential for a public
book launch and screening at BFI Southbank and/or a related event at the
National Theatre.

Members of the TVAD research group have forged excellent links
with museums and other cultural institutions regionally, nationally and
internationally. Dr Pat Simpson initiated a project with the NationalTrust-owned Shaw's Corner and she is involved with the Heritage Hub's Connected Communities
and new towns work. In addition, her research related to the Darwin Museum
is informing the development of a documentary film about Trofim Lysenko being
made by British filmmaker Ben Lewis. As an extension to Dr Steven Adams’ work
on concepts of Utopia in Revolutionary
France, he is also involved with colleagues in the Heritage Hub and Letchworth Garden City
Heritage Foundation on a project entitled 'Radical Letchworth', exploring
ways in which radical politics of the past impact upon the cultural life of
Letchworth citizens today. Kerry Purcell has curated a major exhibition, ‘Alexey
Brodovitch & Richard Avedon - Astonish Me’ for the Museum of Design, Zurich
(2015), and with plans to travel to MOMA, New York City, USA, and other major
museums, with an accompanying catalogue/book. And, Dr Marta Rabikowska’s Directorship
of the established community short film festival, Edge
of the City, is increasingly informed by her related research. Carolyn Lefley was
Artist in Residence at Timespan Heritage Museum and Art Centre in Scotland last
summer. During her residency ran community workshops and kept aproject blog,
written for a diverse audience.
Dr Phillips plans collaborative work with the
National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park and/or Letchworth Garden City
Heritage Foundation.

TVAD researchers are increasingly
using online platforms to disseminate our work to a broad audience. Dr
Brownie’s Guardian
blog directly informs, and is informed by, her academic research into the
relationship between clothes and the body, as well as the research of other
TVAD members. It averages 8-10,000 views per post, with a peak of 73,000 views
and has led to a number of invitations and proposals for non-academic outputs.
A textual introduction and a selection of images from Lees-Maffei’s research
monograph Design at Home: Domestic Advice Books in Britain and the USA since1945 (Routledge, 2014) will be featured in the AHRC
Image Gallery. Lees-Maffei plans a funded exhibition of domestic advice
books, and she tweets @graceleesmaffei
and @JoDesignHistory. Michael
Heilgemeir’s practice extends from photography to the production of an Arts
Council funded magazine with a digital dimension. Dr Dr Daniel Marques Sampaio
'Image of Revolution' project will be disseminated through a blog, and the TVAD
research group’s blog is at http://tvad-uh.blogspot.co.uk/.

Dr Grace Lees-Maffei,

TVAD Research Group.

Photographer and TVAD researcher, Michael Heilgemeir’s magazine Misery Connoisseur, published with support from the Arts Council England - http://www.miseryconnoisseur.co.uk